The various renditions of Thomas King’s ‘Green Grass, Running Water’ throughout the years. I am particularly intrigued by the centre artwork and I wonder what others think of the cover art. What one do you like the best?
One of the first things I noticed about Thomas King’s storytelling in Green Grass, Running Water was the way that the four goddesses, Coyote and “I” spoke. Most of the storytelling that happens when any of these characters are “on screen” is done through their interactions with each other or other characters who might happen along in the story. It is interesting when you think about how King was inspired by Harry Robinson to tell these stories; they come off as is they are oral stories being told because there is not much description of the world around the characters besides what the characters describe themselves. Much like in Robinson’s “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England,” the conversation is what drives the story. Though, what is important in both King’s and Robinson’s narratives is the conversations between characters as it is the connections between the people or characters in the stories that is the important aspect and not whether or not those characters are standing somewhere in Florida or in Blossom, Alberta.
In the conversations that King writes, it is easy to see the influence of Harry Robinson’s own form of “written orality” through the short, straight to the point sentence structure. The entirety of Robinson’s Coyote story is in short, almost grammatically confusing sentences that, as discussed by my fellow classmates in previous blog postings, seem to force the reader to say the sentences out loud in order to gain their meaning. In King’s novel, there is a replica of this kind of writing in the dialogue throughout the novel and not just with the above-mentioned characters. It can sometimes seem that two characters, engaged in conversation, are talking about two completely different topics. For example, in Part One of King’s novel, the character Lionel seems to experience this the most whenever he begins to talk about his future with Bill Bursum:
“I’m looking for someone to replace [Charlie].”
“I’ll probably go back to school.”
. . . “You know, in a good year Charlie would make thirty-five, forty thousand dollars . . .”
“Sure.”
“I think I’ve got a jacket that’ll fit you.”
“Probably go back to school.” (King 78 – 79)
A similar exchange can be read a little further between Lionel and his father, where while Lionel discusses his options about either going to school or working for Mr. Bursum, Lionel’s father goes on about needing help around the house. While King’s approach to dialogue is perhaps less confusing than Robinson because his sentences follow grammatical rules, he does play with the “hard to follow” element that Robinson’s text embodies by the disjunction between characters in their conversations.
Both King’s and Robinson’s texts deal with creationism in some sense. While King’s story focuses on the creating of the world through the four goddesses, Robinson’s text discusses about the creation of the Indian Law or “The Black and White” (Robinson 108). In both texts, the author’s play with the character of God, however, each version of God in the texts has a distinct characteristic that more or less gives the reader a good sense of their character. In Robinson’s text, God is not completely present as they instead send an Angel to speak to Coyote in order to get him to do their bidding. This version of God is seemingly all powerful and omnipotent, seeing that they understand that sending Coyote to the King of England won’t produce the Indian Law until much later, when a Queen finally takes the throne. On the other hand, King’s God is very childish and tantrum-y. They do not come off as being an all powerful being as most of their screen time in the story has them fighting with First Woman who doesn’t understand the “Christian rules” (King 67). God comes off as a comical character rather than the great and knowing one from Christian texts.
Works Cited
CanLit Guides Editorial Team, The. “Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King.” CanLit Guides, November 22, 2013, https://canlitguides.ca/canlit-guides-editorial-team/green-grass-running-water-by-thomas-king/key-themes/. Accessed March 12, 2021.
“Harry Robinson.” TalonBooks, https://talonbooks.com/authors/harry-robinson. Accessed March 12, 2021.
King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water. Harper Perennial, 2012, eBook edition.
Robinson, Harry. “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England.” Living by Stories. Talonbooks, 2005, eBook edition. Pp 93 – 115.
“Thomas King.” HarperCollins, https://www.harpercollins.ca/author/cr-100072/thomas-king/. Accessed March 12, 2021.
Hi readers!
Currently we are all working on forming groups for the end-of-term project. I currently have teamed up with Aidan; still have room for two more if anyone is still looking!
Hi Cayla,
In my own post I had observed how the dialogue in the case of King was an important way of seeing the disconnect between the characters — how you describe the characters purposefully or absently talking past each other, ignoring what they other was saying. I had brought this up in my post because dialogue in both Robinson and King’s writing was an important way that both information and humour was given to the audience.
But what you and others noticed that I did not, was that this dialogue was also an important way that these connections between characters were uncovered, regardless of how different their situations might be. Where the two characters in a scene were actively not listening to each other, they may still be mirroring lines from other characters in another part of the world.
(1) What do you notice as the connections that appears between these characters? And (2) if you’ll allow me to be a bit reductionist, do you believe that the conversations in the book do more to show the connections between the characters, or the division between them?
Hi Zac,
Something that I thought was sorting interesting in the dialogue of Lionel on his thoughts to go back to school was the repetition of Bill Bursum’s line about how much money might be in selling TVs, but quoted at a higher price. To me, this signals a cycle of some sort — much like how the book itself is a cycle that never really has a true ending as it just loops itself back to the beginning. To answer your second question, I would possibly agree that the conversations, in which lines are repeated, shows more connections between the characters. However, I would also argue that when the early lives of the narrators are being discussed, there is a great disconnect. That being said, this disconnect is what the characters themselves seem to be seeking to fix, even if they themselves don’t realize it. Throughout the novel, the younger generation generation cannot hold conversations with the older; in most cases it seems as if two dialogues are happening within one conversation. There is where the disconnection really shows itself, but by the end, there seems to be some bridges built as the younger generation begins to understand where the older is coming from.
Hi Cayla,
Your discussion on the similarity in “written orality” style between King and Robinson’s stories explained the relationship between the two wonderfully! I found the same thing when I was comparing them; the impetus seems to be the same, even if the execution is slightly different. It seems to me as if King might be aiming to achieve the same effect found in Robinson’s works while remaining a bit closer to the written syntax most Anglophone readers will expect, resulting in a delightfully cerebral oral syntax. I think this is best demonstrated by King’s use of references that require speaking (or very, very careful reading!) to understand, such as including “Louis, Ray, Al” from Manitoba. Did you find yourself inclined to read King’s story aloud in the same way Robinson’s story prompted?